City purchases new radios, sets Simek addition rules
The city of Medford is looking to use federal COVID relief funds, grants and local salvage revenues to pay for nearly $100,000 in new radio equipment for the Medford police department.
At Monday night’s city council meeting, council members approved purchasing new radio equipment for the police department at an estimated cost of $96,000.
According to city coordinator Joe Harris, the city is working with the same vendor as the county sheriff’s department and is moving forward with this now to place the order for the units prior to an expected price increase in August. He explained the current radios are not working the best and they are due for replacement.
“We are trying to get ahead of the price increase,” Harris said.
According to council member Ken Coyer, who was police chief at the time, the existing radio equipment was purchased in 2004 with some additional ones purchased in 2009.
“I am surprised that with technology they were able to last that long,” said council member Laura Holmes of the age of the existing police radios.
The cost of the equipment will be covered in part by federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds awarded to the city of Medford and a $13,000 law enforcement grant. He said the remaining $10,000 would come from the fees the police department receives for doing inspections on salvage vehicles.
Council member Mike Bub reported on checking with the county on potential funding. The county is using its ARPA funds to purchase new radios for the sheriff’s department and assist fire departments throughout the county with purchasing new radios. He said the county is not funding radio upgrades from municipal law enforcement agencies including the city, Rib Lake, and Gilman.
“We are all being treated the same,” Bub said.
Simek Addition
Those purchasing lots in the recently approved Simek Addition subdivision located on the south end of Pep’s Drive will have additional rules about the type of home they can build and timelines for construction.
Council members gave formal approval to a list of covenants on the area. The list had been developed during closed session meetings comparing existing covenants in the area and as part of the discussion for assigning purchase prices for the lots.
Pep’s Drive had been originally planned for an industrial expansion from CTH O south to a branch of the Black River. Faced with the need for residential growth to address a housing shortage, the city is in the process of developing the area into multi-family homes closer to CTH O and into one and two family homes in the southern end of the parcel which includes the Simek Addition plat with Pep’s Drive running into JoAnn Circle at its southern end.
Council members formally gave their approval to the final plat for the area following the planning commission’s endorsement of it last week.
Covenant lists 20 separate provisions which include: Structures may be no taller than 2 stories with a minimum ground floor area of 940 square feet for 1-1/2 story homes and 780 square feet for two story homes.
No mobile home, basement, tent, shack, barn, manufactured home, garage or outbuilding, or any part thereof erected in said plat shall be at any time used as a residence, temporary or permanently, nor shall residence of a temporary character be used as a dwelling.
The exterior of all buildings erected on this land shall be completed in the following manner: All of the finishing of the exterior of the home is to be completed prior to the occupancy of the dwelling. The entire dwelling shall be completely finished, landscaped and have driveway paved within one year of issuance of an occupancy permit. All driveways shall be paved with concrete, Tera-Lok or asphalt. No murals or geometrical designs shall be painted or affixed on the exterior of the premises, including overhead garage doors.
No outdoor structure containing or consisting of wood-burning or energy-creating, or energy-converting equipment shall be permitted upon the premises such as solar or wind generators, except that solar equipment shall be permitted to be affixed to the roof top but must not extend beyond the original roof line of the structure.
Construction must begin within 18 months of the purchase of the property with substantial completion within two years. The council may extend this on a case-by-case basis.
The property covenants will be in place for 40 years and then renewed automatically every 10 years unless they are amended by agreement of 7/8 of the property owners.
In other business, council members:
_ Approved a refuse haulers license for Northern Dumpster. This is a new provider in the community with the focus on contractor and construction site dumpsters. The city requires an annual license for any waste hauling companies doing business in the city. It was noted that GFL, which has the city contract for refuse and recycling, has not filed their license yet for this year. It was due at the end of June. “Do we have to implement a tiered penalty so that they realize a deadline is a deadline?” asked council member Chrissy Weix. Council member Dave Roiger noted that firm is routinely a month or two behind in getting their permit submitted and that they do pay a penalty for turning it in late.
_ Received word that painting of water tower No. 3 located off of Shattuck Street has been completed with electrical crews currently working on site and a plan to have it into service by mid-August.
_ Received an update on Perkins St. project. Harris said the concrete curbs should be started by the end of the week and completed next week depending on weather. Harris noted there were delays as the company doing the work was shut down due to weather three times last week on the Rib Lake project.
